The Role Of Engineering In The Pharmaceutical Industry By: Qazi Muhammad Zaheeruddin

Let’s rewind the time back and have a glimpse on the history of Pharmaceutical Industries in Pakistan. We’ll find that in the past 3 decades or so the industry has thrived by leaps and bounds. Pharma industry then used to be managed by very limited knowledgeable mechanical/electrical engineers.
For pharmacists, who were mostly head of the operation, their presence was a wonder to them. Pakistan’s Pharma industry has flourished at very high pace with global pharmaceutical advances with more stringent requirements of cGMP (current Good Manufacturing Practice).
The regulatory requirements such as Calibration, HVAC certification, Utilities quality requirement etc. increased the demand of more Engineers from different disciplines of engineering.
Every advanced machinery used for the manufacturing and packaging suppliers from Europe, USA, Korea, Taiwan and China supplies machines in Pakistan. That also increased the demand of the engineers incredibly as the latest machines were introduced in the Pharma industry. The grim need of engineers was felt in the Pharma industry together with quality control, quality assurance and supply chain staffing. Now, Engineers are in the main stream of management of a Pharma operation. As advanced machinery started to provide better quality product at high speed rates from production to packaging stages, the engineers became back-bone of the advanced Pharmaceutical industry.
The vendor qualification is an inherent part of supply chain & quality job description. Their audit team goes all the way to their sites to perform quality check of the material being used in making quality Pharma products. Engineers are in-house suppliers of HVAC, compressed air, steam, inert gases and different types of water (Portable, RO, DIW, WFI etc.). These are all utilities which should be supplied according to standards published. The quality of in-house, uninterrupted supply created huge demand of Engineers in the Pharma industries.
Besides taking care of quality of utilities, Engineers are responsible for proper preventive maintenance (P.M) program. This together with calibration is favorite topic of any pharma plant audit whether local or internationals. A well written P.M program is audit requirement creating demands of well qualified Engineers.
Moreover, with increased computerization & PLC based machines, the demand of highly trained qualified engineers would go further higher as all international certifications & compliances are looking for more organized engineering application to ensure we supply zero defect products to secure patient’s life.